Pierce and Thorton Jr. top Thursday night opener at Gateway

 The ninth annual Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals rolled off on Thursday night, December 4th at the Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis Missouri. For the first time ever I believe, there was snow on the ground all the way from northern Wisconsin right up and into St. Louis, an indicator of the early Winter that we have had so far. And not only was there snow, but the temperatures were bitterly cold, even for those of us that have to endure that kind of weather for months. You can imagine how the folks from the southern regions were taking things. Much whining took place about this. 

The years have flown by and this event(I can't really call it a race anymore because much of what goes on doesn't qualify as a race), continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It seemed that there was much hype before this years event, much of that created by the teams that would be racing in the Dome. You see, many have now figured out that their main source of income from this race, and what allows them to continue to attend on what is a very expensive week for them, depends on how many t-shirts and hoodies they sell while there are down here. 

So many of the teams, both Mods and Late Models, put different wraps on their cars to make them distinctive and eye catching, with the hopes that will help them sell more shirts. Tribute cars to events and drivers of the past, holiday festive wraps and unfortunately, there are even a few political type wraps as some dolts just can't keep their political views to themselves and allow us to have a quiet and peaceful weekend of racing, minus the political crap that is swallowing us all up these days. 

In any event, so far it seems to be working as when the concourse was opened up to the fans, they charged in mass toward the many vendors selling items with fire in their eyes and cash and plastic in their hands. It is really quite amazing the number of folks that have to buy, buy, buy at this race, perhaps for themselves or maybe Christmas presents for others. Either way, the goose that laid the golden egg is alive and well. One does wonder, however, that when the reality sets in at some point that it really isn't necessary to spend down the national debt at the t-shirt stand and sales start to dwindle, how many of these race teams will decide that their time is better spent at home rather than in St. Louis right before Christmas. 

Two classes were again in action on Thursday as the format that sees both Late Models and Modifieds teams split in half with two qualifying sessions the first two nights and then everyone racing on Saturday. The Modifieds continue to be an invitation only affair with must over thirty racing each night. This was mostly done because there simply wasn't the room and time to run everyone that would like to attend this event and this format provides a qualify field of drivers with numbers easier to work with. 

The Late Models saw a change in their entry procedure this year. Previously, it was "first come, first served" with the Late Models and when they reached their limit in terms of cars that could race, it was cut off. However, that left a number of good teams off the entry list and also saw a considerable number of teams that quite frankly, weren't of the level that should have been racing at this event for either experience or talent reasons. 

This year, everyone that wanted to race submitted their name of the cut off point, and then event officials did a "draft", selecting those teams they felt worthy of racing in the Dome. There are always going to be a few that race that you wonder how in the world they talked or paid their way into the race, but for the most part, those that raced were of top caliber, thus offering 2025 as perhaps the strongest top to bottom field of Late Model teams. 

Each year the track ends up being just a bit different than previous years, just by the engineering done to get the dirt into the dome and the track built. This year an aerial view reveled that the track is more like a "D", than an oval with the area off turn two the tight spot on the track. It was claimed that the track had more banking this year but that was hard to see from the  stands. It was also claimed that the fence was put in at a different angle to try and keep cars from getting up into the fence. 

What we did learn early was that the wall wasn't high enough and with most of the drivers clipping the outside wall as they negotiated the track, they kept getting their right side spoilers into the fence, tearing the spoilers either loose or off entirely and during the early going, yellows were very frequent to pick up spoiler pieces or signs foolishly attached to the walls. More cars than not tore spoilers off during qualifying. 

As for the track itself, it was smooth but it was also perhaps the driest that I have ever seen it with it getting black and super slippery very early into the proceedings. The air quality was very bad with numerous breaks needed to clear the air and I think the dust was also the worst ever with at several points being so heavy that it was hard to see the back chute from the front stretch grandstands. The announcers were lauding the track for being so racy, which frankly I didn't see but not much mention of the other issues and folks walked out of the races looking much the worst for wear. It would be nice to be able to watch the show but not have to wear the whole track home at the end of the night. 

The track gave out quickly when time trials started and with qualifying positions being so important, the draw for time trial order was probably the most important element of the entire night. The Late Model field was divided into two groups with Michael Leach, the fifth driver out, topping the first group and turning the fastest lap of the night at 11.794 seconds. Bobby Pierce, sixth out in the second group, topped that group with a 12.010 seconds as the track slowed down even more. 

Tyler Erb, always one that can be counted on for entertainment value at this race, disappointed his fans when after turning a quick lap, he blew the motor in his car on the second trip around the fifth mile oval and was done for the weekend. 

Six Late Model heat races and three B Features were held to set the, as it turned out, nineteen car field for the main event. Due to some kind of clerical error, Scott Bell wasn't in the lineup for a B Feature when he should have been to so appease him, he was allowed to start the feature as a provisional starter. Not all drivers were guaranteed two races so if you didn't finish near the front of a heat race, you were done for the night. Imagine towing all the way across the country only to get to run eight laps!

In another wrinkle, the six heat winners, instead of redrawing for their starting positions, participated in a tire changing contest to determine who would start where in the first three rows of the feature. With starting position being so important, it seemed like an odd way to to set the field but one must remember that this event is short on actual race and long on spectacle and race organizers apparently felt that this would provide even more entertainment value. The announcers were all over this and seemed to be having a jolly old time with it, but many in the crowd where just anxious to get the race going. Pierce's team, by the way, won the contest which gave him the pole. 

The only surprise in the feature was that Pierce didn't lead from start to finish. Mike Harrison actually got the jump on him and led the opening four laps until Bobby built up some speed and then slid Harrison in turn one for the lead. 

The race was then over, with Pierce leading the rest of the way and never being challenged. Only two yellows slowed the event, both for debris(spoiler parts) on the track with Harrison doing a good job and holding on to second. The best race was watching Brandon Sheppard move forward and late in the race he passed Brian Shirley for third, that being important as only the top three are guaranteed starting spots on Saturday. Only two drivers failed to finish and Pierce was just catching the tail of the field when the checkers waved. 

The Modifieds were much the same. Four heats and a B Feature set their order for their twenty lap main event. The difference was that the Modified winners redrew for their starting positions instead of a tire changing, or motor changing or some other form of contest. 

Thornton Jr. led from start to finish in the Modified main with Dallon Murty slipping into second by the halfway point and staying fairly close to the leader. Tanner Mullens ran second early but slipped back a bit as Trent Young came from the sixth row to move into the third spot. 

The only yellow occurred with just a lap completed but it was a big one right on the front stretch that eliminated several cars and put others to the back. Tyler Nicely, outside pole starter was the big loser while Young saw the ocean open in front of him as he gained a number of spots. 

The crowd was believed to be the biggest Thursday night crowd yet and I'm sure the tv crowd was humongous also. Plan for a whole day in the dome if you're going to this race as the first green flag for competition flew sometime after 5 pm and it was about 5 hours later when the last checkers flew. 

Sawyer Crigler and Chisholm Star as Turkey Bowl Concludes

 For all those years when the Turkey Bowl was run in forty degree temperatures with the wind howling and the skies spitting rain, ice and even a few snow flurries in our faces, 2025 will be remembered as the year when the Weather Man evened up the playing field here in Springfield. For the third straight day the weather was fantastic with sunny skies, no threat of rain and temperatures at or above eighty degrees.  And certainly the great weather played a strong part in the fact that the pits were packed and on Saturday November 15th for the concluding night of the XIX edition of the Turkey Bowl, the grandstands were also packed with fans. This would certainly big the biggest day ever for the Turkey Bowl event and one that everyone will gauge against for success in upcoming years. 

For on Saturday the concluding feature races would be held for three divisions that did their qualifying on Friday night as well as adding the last two divisions that would be doing their full show on Saturday. Once again we were looking at a tremendous amount of racing and if there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, I believe that Saturday would fit that definition. 

But first we must soak in the sheer enormity that this year's race was. I have lost count of exactly how many race teams pulled into the pits for this year's event. My rigid guidelines don't allow for the counting of Legend Cars, just as I don't acknowledge Mod Lites, Dwarf Cars, Bat Wings and all the other such forms of motorized racing. Still, for the promoter and fans watching, they race just like all the other classes do and there must have been fifty or so of them, some coming all the way from North Dakota just to race this weekend. There were extra drivers that came just to start in the back of B Features for some reason that I lost count of and who could have predicted that there would be seventy Late Models that would sign in for six grand to win!!! That was just crazy stupid wild. We didn't have enough cars last year apparently so the Super Stocks were invited for a one night stand also and there were nearly thirty of them on hand. The number 529 was mentioned as the total car count for the weekend and I'll go along with that which is amazing. It is also a logistical nightmare that was handled just about as well as could be expected. Nevertheless, it made for a long final day of racing, one that quite a few spectators didn't stick it out to the end  for. 

Let's talk about those seventy Late Models for a second. Isn't that crazy? It is true that this area does have an abundance of Late Models compared to other parts of the country and quite a few different series with which to participate in. However, one would not expect that many to still be racing in mid November but there they were from all parts of Missouri and near by states and even a drivers that pulled all the way from South Dakota and Tennessee. 

Despite having to deal with such huge fields of drivers and the logistics of organizing them when they were parked over many acres of land and no pa system for much of them, the show would again start right at the advertised time for the third straight night. With racing beginning at 5 pm, it took five hours just to get the qualifying and Last Chance events concluded. Everybody deserves one last chance to make the features but it felt like the qualifying events could have contained more cars and run a few less laps. In any event, the thirty seven qualifying races were done just after 10 pm and then it was time to start the main events. 

Track watering was interspersed among all those races with a complete ripping of the track before the Modifieds made their appearance for the main event. This produced a track that despite all the laps was still racy and with no rubber although it was blindingly dirty for the fans for much of the main events. I guess we could call it the price of doing business. 

In any event, the Midwest Modz A were the first ones out for their main event. Trenton Brookshire started on the outside pole and took the early lead. A good battle for second saw Andy Aust and Michael Maggard fighting for position while Mark Simon was on the move from the third row. James Lee then put on charge of his own, moving from the fourth row into second by the halfway point of the race. 

Lee would fade back a bit near the end but no one had anything for Brookshire would crossed the line as the apparent winner. Simon, Aust, Caden Bolin and Lee finished off the top five. 

Young Brookshire was thrilled to be the winner and did a nice interview in front of the crowd as the pa system wouldn't work in victory lane and all the winning drivers had to cross the track to be interviewed in front of the crowd, which actually was quite nice. 

But reality slapped Brookshire hard across the face when he went for tech inspection and the result was that he was disqualified, along with fifth place finisher Lee which awarded the win to Simon and added Cory Johnson and Maggard to the official top five. 

Thus, both Midwest Modz classes this weekend saw the apparent feature winner disqualified. That tells me that something is amiss somewhere either in the tech inspection this weekend or perhaps the lack of inspections throughout the racing season. Either way, Houston, we have a problem that clearly needs fixing. 

While the track was "juiced up" for the Modified feature race, one of the announcers, the omnipresent Jerry Vansickle, who seems to show up at every special event in the Midwest when Marshalltown is not racing, held a contest for the Modified and Late Model drivers to determine who would start in the front rows, based on their skill level at throwing a football in a garbage can. I'm not sure how one talent equates to the other but while some will claim that race car drivers are indeed athletes, no one would claim that they are football quarterbacks from what they showed!

In any event, two of the younger drivers in Reese Solander and Jim Chisholm did the best at football tossing and that proved to be important as the track was blinding fast of the feature race due to the sped up surface. With twenty one very fast drivers in the main representing both USRA and UMP and a very fast surface to race on, passing would be hard. 

Chisholm got the jump using the preferred outside line with Solander tucking in behind him. These two then set the pace for thirty very fast laps of racing and while it was spectacular, there was little in the way of passing.

Chisholm successfully negotiated the few lapped cars that he caught which was Solander's only hope, and the Iowa driver raced on for the win. Solander finished second with Tanner Mullens, Kyle Steffens and Chris Spaulding next in line. 

Only four drivers were lapped in the nonstop race and only a single driver was not on the track at the finish. 

The Late Models also saw a quick track for their thirty lapper and again the outside pole was the place to be. Sawyer Crigler got the jump on Shane DeMey to take the early lead and he pulled away to a comfortable lead in the early going. DeMay was receiving pressure from Eli Ross and Myles Moos as the laps clicked by. 

Just past the halfway point, Tony Jackson Jr, who was making a nice charge to the front, spun in turn one and the lone yellow of the race flew. Ross had to pit at this time and lost his position with Moos up to third, Tennessee driver Matt Cooper and Dillon McCowan completing the top five. 

Crigler took off again on the restart and built up a good sized lead again. Moos was making a run and he went for it but jumped the cushion in turn one and lost considerable time. The driver really moving up was Springfield's own Terry Phillips as while he wasn't in the top five with twelve laps to go, suddenly he was battling for third with Moos. 

Crigler continued his excellent run, wasn't challenged and drove home for the win, his second Turkey Bowl trophy to collect. DeMey had a great run in his spec engine car, holding off Phillips for second while Moos and McCowan completed the top five. Only two drivers didn't finish the race. 

With J.C. Morton starting on the outside pole, it seemed like he might be the one to beat in the B Mod feature race. And he did take the lead initially and hold the top spot for the first six laps. However, in a bit of a surprise, Waylon Dimmett, who started in the second row, got a good run going and was able to drive past Morton and take over the lead just  before the lone yellow of the race flew for a spin in turn four. 

Dimmett then pulled away from the the pack but on the move was defending winner of this race, Brayton Carter. The last thirteen laps ran off nonstop and slowly but surely, Carter started to cut into the lead of Dimmett. Dimmett was pushing the cushion while Carter was working the short way around the track and slowly creeping closer and closer. 

The last few laps gave us the closest finish of the night. Carter may have had a chance for a late race pass but a lapped car loomed ahead that was running the low line which caused him to adjust his line to get past the slower car and that was all the edge that Dimmett needed as he crossed under the finish line with a few car lengths on the Iowa driver. Indeed, Dimmett was the only winner of the feature races staged on Saturday that didn't lead from start to finish. 

There was a pounding duo that was closing on both the leaders but ran out of time as Kris Jackson, who started in the sixth row, was coming hard but settled for third with Morton and another hard charger in Ryan Gillmore next in line. 

The last feature race of the very early morning(it was now Sunday), was the Super Stock main event. Big developments in this race happened even before the green flag flew when pole sitter John Coats, considered a favorite to win the race, had his car quit during the pace laps and he was pushed to the pits which shuffled the starting order. 

This gave Donnie Miller the outside pole and he used it to his full advantage, leading from start to finish for twenty laps to get the win. This was a clean race that went green to checkers and with Miller having good momentum, he was impossible to catch. 

Making a nice drive forward and using the low line was Oklahoma driver Michael Muskrat who started seventh and drove up to the second spot in the late going. Eighth to third was Aaron Poe with this class seemingly being able to move forward more but perhaps that was because the track had started to dry out some which made passing a bit easier. Bobby Ratterree and Kevin Brown completed the top five with the final checkers waving at just about 1 am. 

This completed what was quite the colossal event. Now one of the biggest events in the country in terms of entries, it was three days of racing action and more. If this event continues to grow and that is always hard to predict as uncertain November weather can always put a damper on things, some adjustments might have to be made. It is almost to the point of being too big for the facility and having too many races to be manageable comfortably. But we will see what 2026 brings. 

In the meantime, thanks go out to Jerry Hoffman and his staff. Hoffman is the "Energizer Bunny" for this event, seemingly with boundless energy as he races from one task to another. His hard working crew is not far behind as the number of hours all them put in this weekend was large indeed. Putting on such a show is a monumental task and for the most part, it went off seamlessly. Anyone who came all three nights and felt they didn't see enough races must have been sleeping! Speaking of that, I'm guessing the whole Springfield crew slept in on Sunday morning!

 

Clay and Cater Win as Turkey Bowl Gobbles On

 Friday night, November 14th brought much more racing action to the Springfield Raceway as Turkey XIX continued with its second night of racing action. On a spectacular November night, a total of thirty seven races would be held as three additional classes made their first appearance of the week while two other classes wrapped up their racing with feature races after having qualified on Thursday night. 

The pit area appeared to be plenty crowded by Thursday night but add another two hundred and six entrants for Friday night's racing and they were nearly to the point of having to close I-44 and park race teams on the highway! A slight exaggeration to be sure, but even with the large turnouts from previous years, there is no comparison to what the pit area has extended to in 2025. Certainly the spectacular weather has something to do with that, along with the increased purses and the fact that this race has really gained a footing as a must attend race for drivers and teams from not only this area but from far and wide. 

The Friday night program saw qualifying heats for the three arriving classes which were the Modifieds, B Mods and Midwest Modz A class. The Midwest Modz B class along with the Pure Stocks(or full bodied class or whatever they are calling them this year), ran B Features and then finished off their week here with two feature races. 

Car counts are up across the board from last year's event with only the MMA being equal to last year while the B Mods and Mods showed significant growth in 2025. Especially strong was the Modified field with seventy three entries and many of the top Midwest drivers on hand with USRA, IMCA and UMP type cars all sharing the track. 

All classes would be qualifying using passing points with the Modifieds running two heat races with their starting order shuffled for the second round of heats plus they would be racing against different drivers than in the first round, the only fair way of doing this.  

Racing action began right at the advertised time and except for one break to dig the track and re water it, it was nonstop racing action. There were a few brief pauses also to spritz the racing surface but they took minimal time so there was plenty of racing for even the most particular of fan. 

Both the Midwest Modz B and Pure Stocks raced their B Features and then ran the only main events of the night. While the tech area has been quite quiet so far this week with only a pair of disqualifications to report following night one, they loomed large in the two feature races completed on Friday as you will see. 

Twenty one drivers would start the Midwest Modz B feature race with Clayton Ward starting on the pole and leading in the early going. The pace was fast and no yellow flags slowed the contest. Young Karter Jackson was on the move after starting in the second row and by the halfway point of the race had moved into second and was closing on the leader. 

Ward was running the middle line while Jackson was pounding the cushion and was making time using that line. He caught Ward just past the halfway point of the race and made his move. He pulled to the outside of Ward down the back chute but just as he went to make the pass, the two leaders encountered a  slower car which tightened things up considerable. As they pounded down the front chute, things just got too tight and there was contact between Jackson, in the middle, and the slower car up against the wall. 

Jackson was launched off the first turn and slammed hard into the concrete wall surrounding the track. He hit very hard but was fortunately uninjured. However, his car suffered heavy damage and was out of the race. It was very bad luck for Jackson who looked like he might just grab the win but it was just one of those bad deals that truly was just a racing accident with really no one at fault. 

The restart saw there to to be just eight laps remaining in the contest. Jordan Cater inherited the second spot and he began to challenge Ward as racing resumed. However, Ward was sharp enough to realize the top side was faster and he moved up into that groove, blocking any advance by Cater who followed closely over the final laps but couldn't must a serious charge. 

Ward was the winner over Cater, Braxton Rupp, Gavin Buckley and Keegan Brookshire with only three drivers not finishing the race. Ward was quite pointed in his post race comments, mentioning that he had won the biggest race of the year after having been told before the season started that he couldn't do it. 

However, post race tech was still to be passed, and while no official announcement was made as to the particulars, Ward was disqualified in tech for some irregularity with the rules. Cater was then moved up as the new winner with Cody Arnett now a part of the top five finishers. 

Twenty one drivers would also start the twenty lap feature race for the Pure Stocks, a race that would not quite as smoothly as the previous feature race had. Chase Galvan got the jump on the station wagon of Allen Thompson to take the initial lead. Point champion at the track in 2025 Eric Clay started in the second row and quickly moved in to challenge Galvan for the lead. Using the high side of the track, Clay took over the lead with three laps complete, just before the first yellow of the race slowed the action. 

Galvan, Thompson and Kolby Rathbone all challenged Clay with the top four drivers running in a tight pack. Clay continued to hold the lead but those behind him were swapping spots, with Rathbone up to second when the second yellow of the race flew when Mason Beck and Eddy Noll got tangled on the back chute, with it taking several minutes to pull the two apart. Beck was able to continue but most of the body on the car was torn off or pulled off by the wrecker crew and he was racing a highly altered looking car. 

The last ten laps of the race ran off nonstop and Clay started to pull away from the pack. Most were focused on the huge charge then being put on by Beck who went to the back of the pack following his tangle but came charging forward in an epic run. 

Clay was comfortably out front but lap after lap, Beck continued to pick off competitors, finally passing Thompson for second with just a couple laps left. He had nothing for Clay who drove home for the win but Beck's run from the back, minus body, was impressive. 

However, for the second time of the night, tech inspection spoke loud and clear when second place finisher Beck was disqualified. No official word was given but there certainly was the possibility that he didn't make weight, given the condition of the car after the race. In any event, Thompson was moved up to second with Scotty Carter, Tyler Schoen, up from eighteenth and Rathbone completing the top five. 

That track stayed in good condition and a nice sized Friday night crowd was on hand. Saturday night the Late Models move in for a full show. Their number appears to be very good also with around thirty just practicing on Friday night and the Super Stocks, making their first start in the Turkey Bowl, will also be joining the action. Feature races following B Features will also be held for the Midwest Modz A, B Mods and Mods. Quite confusing, don't you think?

Turkey Bowl XIX Begins, Alex Boyden Opening Night Winner

 Opening night racing action began on Thursday night, November 13th for the XIX Edition of the Turkey Bowl at Jerry Hoffman's Springfield Raceway near the airport in Springfield Missouri. 

Begun  on a whim as a way to wrap up the racing season and not really knowing whether such a late season event would be supported by both the drivers and the public, this race has turned into one of the largest late season gatherings of racers and fans in the Midwest. Huge fields of race cars in a multitude of classes and a packed house for the Saturday night finale have marked this event in recent years. 

It has now grown to three  full nights of racing with an additional night for loading the racing field into the pits and for practice. As the popularity of this race has grown, so also has the pit area to park the hundreds of racers. Over the years, Jerry has moved a considerable amount of of earth and now uses every single inch of his property to park race teams and in recent years has even expanded to the East behind where the pits used to end to use a hay field that butts right up to I-44. This event has turned into one of the largest races in the Ozarks and drivers now come from a number of states to race, both to get that one last race of the year in and also because the prize money has also increased by leaps in recent years for the drivers. 

Thursday night's opening action featured racing in three classes plus the Legend Cars while drivers in all other classes also got the chance to hot lap, both before the racing and for a period of time after the night's racing was concluded. 

Thursday night the Midwest Modz B class, the Pure Stocks or full bodied class as some were calling it plus the Front Wheel Drive cars. The first two classes ran heats only on Thursday with their B Features and main event coming on Friday night. The Front Wheel Drive cars, however, would run their full program on Thursday with the winner getting the first prized Turkey trophy to take home. 

The pit area was already jam packed on Thursday with the Front Wheel Drive cars signing in forty two drivers, the Pure Stocks fifty eight and the MMB fifty four. Throw in about another fifty Legend cars and over two hundred drivers would be racing on Thursday with five more classes yet to run over the next two nights as Super Stocks have also been added to this year's show, their event being a one night stand on Saturday when the Late Models race. Surprisingly though, even though the Lates don't race until Saturday ,there were a goodly number of them already on hand two days early just to practice. 

Passing points were used to set the running order for the main events heat races for all classes racing on Thursday with more practice mixed in between B Features for the Front Wheel Drive cars and then again after their main event. 

Twenty three drivers would start the twenty three lap Front Wheel Drive feature racing for $1023 to the winner. Alex Boyden would start on the pole after earning the most passing points in the heats and he would then go on to lead the entire race and collect the big money. 

Two yellow flags would slow the contest in the first two laps with a couple cars flying off the back chute followed by a debris yellow but after that, the racing would be clean and hard with just one more stoppage near the mid point of the race. 

Boyden moved to a comfortable lead but the battle for second was a good one as Jason Weber and Jordan Goddard battled back and forth for that spot. Goddard held the spot early but by the halfway point, Weber had passed him for position. 

The midrace yellow saw Weber challenge Boyden the most that any had all night, but after staying close for a couple laps, Boyden again pulled away. 

The driver on the move was Amadeus Keepper who started twelfth and by the midpoint of the race still had not raced into the top five. But he used the higher lane on the track and once he got his momentum going, he was driving by other racers at a quick rate. Continuing his charge, he passed Weber for second in the late going but was not able to get any closer to the leader, but a yellow late could have been problematic for Boyden. 

However, that didn't happen and Boyden drove home without a severe challenge to take the win. Behind Keepper and Weber, Tyrel Jones and Dylan Whitney completed the top five. Fifteen drivers completed the distance with all on the lead lap. 

With the racing completed, practice then took over and the parade of drivers to get laps was still going strong when I called it a night, with all racing done around 9:30 pm. On Friday night, the MMB and Pure Stocks will run their B Features and main events while the Modifieds, B Mods and MMA hit the track for the first time, running their qualifying heats. It will be a big night night of open wheel racing as we span the alphabet in classes. 

Dillard and Reutzel Repeat, Solander Also a TMS Winner

 The Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track concluded their 2025 racing season on Saturday night, November 8th with night number two of the Deuces Wild weekend which featured the POWRi 410 Sprints, the Revival Series for Late Models and the USRA ARMS Series for Modifieds. 

It was another gorgeous night in November for dirt track racing in the Lone Star state with temperatures in the eighties during the day before a strong cold front plowed through the area, bringing lots of wind and falling temperatures. Nevertheless, a good sized crowd was on hand in the cavernous grandstand to watch the racing program while the pit area was again bursting with race cars as strong fields were on hand in all three classes.

Eight new Modifieds and a pair of Sprint Cars were added to the entry list on Saturday, producing an impressive field of seventy three of the Modifieds and a total of one hundred and sixty two cars this weekend. 

The Saturday night program would be an exact duplicate of the Friday night show with the exception that the Sprints were split into a pair of B Features instead of the one Jeff Broeg sized one that was run on Friday night. 

The very late concluding program on Friday was a considerable source of discussion on Saturday with, I'm told, several meeting held over the topic. Unfortunately, in my personal opinion, the results were not what I would have hoped for in change. Yes, the show was moved up about an hour and the running order was changed so that Sprint feature was completed before the Modified and Late Model B Features were held as obviously management felt the Sprints to be the biggest part of the program.  

Still there were many folks that never saw the last part of the show and while some many have made the choice to leave after the Sprints were done, lots of folks left because it simply got too late. Despite lobbying efforts to the contrary, hot laps were again held for all three classes and that took a full hour to complete with all the cars on hand plus the Sprints all having to be push started. Time trials were again held for all three classes and that is also a time consuming process, no matter how well organized the event might be on this fairly large track. 

This event reminds me of a mini Charlotte with the variety of classes racing and we know that Charlotte went to a separate night for qualifying only so that the other race nights didn't last so long. I'm not saying that this is needed here but something must be done to shorten up the total length of the show. 

The track was considerably drier than it had been on Friday night and it did race wider in the corners but that also created an issue with the surface rubbering up. While there was never a need for track maintenance on Friday, the track was ripped and watered three times on Saturday night and still the last two feature races were run off with a considerable rubbered up surface that affected the racing. 

Drivers that ran strong on Friday night started out that same way on Saturday with Aaron Reutzel turning quick time in the Sprint Cars while Cade Dillard doubled up again, being quickest in both the Modifieds and the Late Models. The format was the same as on Friday with the Sprints running passing points after inverting four in each heat while the Mods and Late Models ran everything straight up from qualifying. After the conclusion of the qualifying races, the scenario for repeats was strong and for the most part that is how it played out. 

Reutzel started on the pole for the Sprint feature and he would eventually lead all twenty five laps to take the win for the second straight night. He did not dominate quite as strongly as he had on Friday but his lead was still considerable at the finish. 

Saturday night's race did have a couple minor yellows which allowed the field to stay closer to Reutzel but also eliminated much of the worry with lapped traffic that he had to deal with on Friday night. Austin McCarl made a nice show as he came from the third row and after the best battle of the race when he fought with Ian Madsen for second, secured that spot to the end.

He was mad afterward, blaming the slower cars for getting in his way and preventing an attack on Reutzel but is seemed doubtful that he had anything for Reutzel. Brenham Crouch, Madsen and Joe B. Miller completed the top five. 

The lone upset of the weekend was in the Modifieds and that prevented Dillard from pulling off two complete sweeps of the weekend. By Modified feature time the track was in full rubbered up fashion and passing was going to be tough with everyone pretty much hugging the low groove. Reese Solander got the jump on Sean Gaddis to take the early lead with Dillard, who had redrew the second row, quickly taking over second. 

The race was then on, with just one late race yellow after that to slow the action. Solander was fast no doubt and while Dillard tried every thing he could, he simply wasn't able to execute a pass on the quick running Solander. Dillard tried moving up the track and running the top side along with different routes, but the inside was just that much faster and getting out of the rubber produced no more speed. 

And Solander drove a smart race as he was both fast and never slipped out of that rubber lane. Lapped traffic was minimal but difficult and the move of the race was when Solander got past Wyatt Gaggero at the back of the pack which gave him a comfort level over Dillard. Chris Hennigan started and finished third with Tyler Wolff and Gaddis next in line. 

With the hour late, there would be no more track prep and the Late Models also had to navigate a rubbered up racing surface. This wasn't a problem though for Dillard, who started on the pole and led from start to finish.

Bad luck struck early as Shane Hebert, scheduled to start on the outside pole, scratched from the event and this moved Morgan Bagley up beside Dillard. Dillard was not as strong as on Friday night and Bagley actually raced him side by side on the opening lap before the rubber gave Dillard an inside boost into the lead. 

After that, Dillard led the rest of the way although Bagley did stay fairly close. In fact, on the last corner Bagley went for broke, driving it deep into the fourth corner. However, his Don Garlits like burn out as he slipped out of the rubber really slowed him down and Terry Phillips slipped past him on the inside to steal the second spot. Phillips, driving the Mann Motorsports car out of Arkansas, has promised that he will be doing more Late Model racing in 2026. Tyler Wolff got his second straight fourth place finish with Tyler Kuykendahl next in line.  Only four drivers failed to finish this race and all were on the lead lap. 

One notable statistic from the weekend showed that there was not a single pass for the lead on either night, meaning all six feature races were led from start to finish by a driver. I'm not so sure that is an indictment  of the track as much as it is of the format used. And once again, it was a late night with the final checkered waving just before 1 am. 

Overall though, it was an enjoyable weekend of racing. The weather was great, the facility excellent  and the car counts were spectacular, giving me the opportunity to see drivers compete that I would never otherwise get the chance to. With this racing seemingly successful, I'm thinking that POWRi and ARMS will consider this a great way to wind up their seasons in future years with the time element thing the one "elephant in the room" to be addressed.  

Thanks goes out to Talin Turner and the entire  POWRi staff along with Trenton Berry and his group from the ARMS series for their help and for presenting this spectacular show. 

Dillard Dominates; Reutzel Also a Winner at TMS

 The Deuces Wild Championship weekend for three racing series began on Friday night, November 7th at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track North of Fort Worth. 

This weekend's racing would see three distinctive different series and types of race cars settle their season long points battle at one of the finest dirt tracks in the country. On hand racing this weekend were the POWRi 410 Outlaw Sprint League Sprint Cars, the Late Models from the Revival Super Dirt Series being supported by drivers from the United Rebel Late Model Series and the USRA American Racer Modified Series. 

All three series would be crowning their champions following the racing action on Saturday night although there was really only one series that hadn't already determined who their champion would be and that was the ARMS Modifieds. 

Speaking of the ARMS Series, I did get a chance to briefly talk with ARMS owner Trenton Berry as he prepared for the evening's racing. As soon as this race is over, he will be devoting full attention to getting things finalized for his 2026 season with his three Modified series plus the new Late Model Series his is plunging into. To say that his plate is full would be an understatement and he mentioned that he was only home for three weekends all Summer this year. He anticipates all three series to be about like last year and his Late Model Series is planned to be for somewhere between fifteen and twenty events at tracks in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma mostly with a purse structure of three grand to win and a total purse of somewhere over sixteen thousand dollars. He did say that he has received quite a bit of interest from promoters from that area about booking an event. 

I did not get the chance to speak to anyone from POWRi but their list of series and events is expected to once again be huge. 

With this being the final race for all three series along with the last race of 2025 for many teams, the opportunity to race at one of the finest dirt facilities plus spectacular weather, a large field of drivers was anticipated for this weekend's action and none of the three series disappointed. 

When everyone had signed in on Friday, there were thirty five Sprint Cars on hand along with fifty two Late Models and sixty five Modifieds with the total entries of one hundred and fifty two swelling the paved pit area of the track to the bursting point with a number of late arrivals having to pit across the street on grass.  

Full programs for all three series were on the card for Friday with all three series doing time trial qualifications, heats, B Features and main events. A number of established stars were on hand in each class along with a number of up and comers. Drivers were on hand from a large number of states and I was especially surprised to learn of the number of Late Model teams from the Midwest area that I was not aware were running. Because POWRi runs so many races in the Missouri area, there were a large number of Late Model teams on hand from there, the Sprint Car teams were from literally all over the country and the ARMS series gets great support from the abundant number of Modified teams in Texas and Oklahoma. 

The track had been generously watered for Friday night's racing action and it took just a few minutes longer than planned for the Sprints, the first group on the track for all events, to roll it in. However, after this, the track would see no attention except to scrap the mud off the walls several times as it raced heavy and fast all night. There was no dust and no water truck was ever needed and despite it's heavy nature, it did form two distinctive lines with some drivers running the cushion even though the top half of the track remained unused while others hugged the inside line. The inside line took a "shine" so maintaining consistency lap after lap was challenging and we saw much back and forth racing. 

The three themes that seemed to prevail on Friday night for me were the superior car counts in all classes, the dominant runs by two drivers that completely dominated their divisions and the long night of racing which slopped over onto Saturday morning. More about that later but let's talk about the dominant performances of Cade Dillard and Aaron Reutzel. 

Dillard was perfect on Friday night, turning the quickest time in both the Late Models and Modifieds, winning both his qualifying events and then dominating both feature races. It was quite the night for the Louisiana driver who used this weekend to race in both of his favorite classes and certainly to try and sell more cars in this area. 

In the Late Models, he set quick time at 15.623 seconds, a full four tenth of a second quicker than group two quickest Jake Nightingale. The Late Models started their heats straight up from qualifying but the top six didn't run a heat, they raced a dash the determined their starting positions for the main event. Dillard won that so he started on the pole.

He got the lead right from the start and led all twenty five laps, finishing comfortably in front at the finish. This race had its share of difficulties with the yellow waving four times and nearly as many drivers not finishing the race as those that did. 

A particularly nasty lap two wreck saw then second place runner Eli Ross spin on a restart and collect a number of other drivers with at least four eliminated from the contest. Nightingale, who had a bad dash, had to come from the third row and after a good battle with Jon Mitchell and and Kylan Garner, drove up to second at the end but was well back of Dillard. Mitchell finished third in front of Kip Hughes and Shane Hebert. Garner faded to sixth but still clinched the title. 

Modifieds also qualified with Dillard the only driver in the seventeen second bracket, turning a fast lap of 17.917 on the four tenth mile oval. Heats were straight up off times and after winning his heat, Dillard redrew the pole for the Modified main and he again led from start to finish. 

This race forced him to work a bit harder, at least at the beginning as he was challenged  by young New Mexico driver Hunter Sandy who nearly snuck by the low running Dillard by running the cushion but Dillard saw him coming in the nick of time, changed his line and that was game, set and match after that. 

Three early yellows kept the field bunched for minor issues but the last eleven laps of the twenty lapper ran off green to checkers and Dillard used that time to pull away from the field, finding the quick line to be up on the cushion in turns one and two and hugging the inside line on the other end of the track. 

Tyler Davis came from the third row with a nice drive to finish up second and third row mate Chris Huckeba finished third. Tristan Dycus and Jason Sartain wrapped up the top five as only five drivers failed to finish this race in contrast to the Lates. 

There was some drama as point leader Kale Westover blew a motor in his heat race and things looked bleak but he was able to change the motor, start with a provisional twenty sixth and race all the way up to tenth with Manuel Williams, second in points finishing behind him while third place in points Joe Duvall blowing up early in the main as motors were detonating left and right on the big track that was pulling hard. 

And as dominant as Dillard was, Reutzel might have been even more so in the Sprint Cars. His evening started out shaky though, as a push vehicle climbed the back of his car as it was being pushed out for qualifying, damaging it and sending him back to the pits for repairs. However, scheduled to be the second car out on what was still a wet track, he might have benefitted by the incident as he then ended up being the twenty seventh car out when the track was better. He set fast time at 13.538 seconds and then, after finishing second in his heat, earned the pole for the feature. The Sprint Cars were the only class not to start straight up in heats and use draw redraw, as they inverted four for their heats and used passing points to set the running order for the main. 

The Sprint feature was quite remarkable in that it went twenty five laps, green to checkers and all twenty three drivers that started the race were still on the track at the finish. Lapped traffic was clearly brutal but it made for some interesting jockeying for position. Reutzel handled it like a champ and his lead was nearly a full straightaway for most of the race. At the end, there were only ten drivers on the lead lap as Reutzel carved up the field. 

Austin McCarl moved into second by the halfway point of the race but he had nothing for the leader. Ayrton Gennetten, the point champion, started and finished third with Roger Crockett and Brenham Crouch completing the top five. 

The one bummer of the night was the long night of racing itself. Obviously, it takes quite a bit of time to qualify over one hundred and fifty cars and with engine heat starting at 6 pm and qualifying following hot laps for all cars, the time schedule was blown out of the water early. It's not that they did a poor job of time management as the qualifying was done as fast as possible, the races were lined up promptly and one immediately followed the other and they took no breaks. It's just that there was a lot of racing to be done and it took time. 

Despite their best efforts, the first race didn't hit the track until 9:09 pm, very late indeed and the final checkered of the night, for the Late Model feature, flew at 1:52 am on Saturday morning. A good sized crowd appeared to be on hand but it was sad that at least half of them were already gone when the first feature race started. After dropping thirty five bucks to watch the show and then not seeing a single main event, how many of them will return on Saturday?

The plan is to start an hour earlier on Saturday but clearly, they did not give good consideration to just how long it would take to qualify that many cars and still start at a reasonable time. We will see how things work out on Saturday but with that many cars, it is a tough thing to run off a speedy show, especially on a work night. But on the plus side, the racing was good except for the lead and it was great to see so many drivers support these series. 

And oh, I have to mention how cool it is to have a tunnel at a dirt track so the drivers leave through the tunnel and don't have to cross the track. What other tracks in the country have such a set up?

Murty Doubles at Moyer Memorial at Marshalltown

 Saturday night marked the finale of the 2025 racing season at the Marshalltown Speedway with the second half of the Harvest Hustle on the high banks.

Saturday night was also the celebration of the Carl Moyer Memorial race as the Late Models of the  Karl Chevrolet  Pro Late Model Tour joined the other classes for a one night race for themselves. The addition of the Late Models put the car count over the two hundred and seventy number. With the pits so jammed, the Late Models ended up pitting on the East end of the Fairgrounds, something that I had never seen done here before. 

Saturday's program saw Last Chance qualifying for the six classes that raced on Friday night plus a full show for the Late Models. The Late Model portion of the show brought a good number of the PRO regulars plus other Late Model drivers looking to get a last race in before the snow flies. 

Drivers got two more chances on Saturday night to make the main events as first Last Chance heats were held which moved a few drivers up immediately into the mains and then everyone else got to run a Last Chance event to put the last feature starters into the show. 

Another forty three races would be held on Saturday night and even though the program started earlier than on Friday, with so many races it would be another long evening of racing. When all the qualifying was completed, there would end of being around twenty four or so drivers in each class that would run a main event. 

The first class up for their main event was the Sport Mods and there was some controversy in this main. And I must admit that most of the questions were asked by me and not by others in the crowd. Brayton Carter and Matt Avila shared the front row for the start and they took off battling each other in tight formation. They were nearly side by side down the front stretch on the opening lap and when they doze to the inside of turn one, it got tight for Avila and he spun out. 

As all the cars  had not completed the opening lap, a restart was called for and according to the way they operate here, it turned into a "do over" for the entire field, meaning that Avila got his spot back. 

J VAN and I have gone around on this(in a good way of course) and he tells me that this is the way that they do it here every week and if so, they should indeed follow the same course on this weekend too. I believe a bit differently on this as for me, whether it was the first lap or the last, when someone triggers the yellow they should go to the back of the pack. If we give everyone a "do over", we might as well got to UMP racing where the first attempt is fair game for anyone to try anything and if it doesn't work, they try again a second time using the original lineup. 

If M Town does this every week then they definitely should also do it the same way for this event; it's the philosophy behind it that I question. 

In any event, the restart saw Avila get past Carter who failed to cover the outside lane and block Avila's charge and on a top side dominant track at this point of the night, Avila then pulled away for the win. There was only one yellow after that and Avila, strong on the cushion, never gave Carter a chance to catch him. Brayden Shepherd would run third for most of the race. 

Twenty Late Models started their feature race and while J.D. Auringer took the early lead, he was soon under the gun from Dallon Murty who started right behind him. It took Murty only three laps to get past Auringer and he then cruised away from the field. 

There were several yellows to bunch the pack but every time Murty would pull away and he was never seriously challenged. C.J. Horn moved into the second spot by the halfway point of the race but was never able to cut into Murty's lead. Brennan Chipp finished third. 

I felt that perhaps the most entertaining feature was the Hobby Stock main that saw a real battle for the lead and a late race pass making the difference. It was primarily a two car battle between Bradly Graham and Carson Butt that got a bit physical several times. 

Graham started on the outside pole and led most of the race over Butt. Graham was running low in turns one and two and each lap, Butt would try to run off the banking and get enough momentum to make a pass down the back chute. 

This was attempted several times but each time Graham was able to squeeze off Butt and hold him back. Finally, Butt got a better run off turn two and Graham might have been just a bit lower exiting the corner, but either way, Butt was able to edge under Graham down the back chute and take over the lead with them making some contact and Graham getting squeezed himself a bit into the back chute guard rail. 

Butt then held off the challenges the last few laps from Graham to take the win, and after they crossed the finish line and slowed for turn one, Graham initiated some contact that saw Butt pull into victory lane with a left front fender flapping in the breeze. He seemed to not even have noticed this and to me, there was equal give and take during the race that no one got the upper hand, but perhaps Graham wasn't happy losing to a fourteen year old. In any event, it was an action packed event. 

I was expecting a wild and competitive Stock Car feature race but instead it was kind of quiet and nondescript, thanks to Murty. Braden Richards took the initial lead with Jeffrey Abbey, in the B&B House Car, moving into second. Murty started fifth but quickly moved to third and then got past Abbey to move into second by lap four as two yellows slowed the race early. 

The rest of the event went nonstop and it took only a few laps for Murty to build up a head of steam and drive past Richards on lap ten and after that he was gone. He remained unchallenged as the top three stayed in the same order with not a lot of passing behind them either. 

The Sport Compacts shocked when they started twenty four cars, all twenty four remained on the track to the finish and the race ran of nonstop! 

Brian Hillringhouse started on the outside pole and led the first five laps. Michael Gardner started in the second row and made what was the winning pass on lap six and after that move, he was gone. Despite having to navigate through some lapped traffic, he was never in danger of losing the lead as he built up quite a comfortable edge. Hillringhouse then ran second for the rest of the race with Adam Broehm third. 

The evening concluded with another domination performance as Jake McBurnie started on the pole and led all twenty five laps to win the Modified feature. There was only one slowdown in the late going but he took off strong on the restart and moved away from Tripp Gaylord and Kyle Brown to take the win. 

Only four drivers failed to finish the final race of the night. The last checkered waved at 1:38 am, making for a truly long race meet. It was a cold night with a wind that never seemed to let up and while it blew in a direction that wasn't at least in our faces, it was relenting and made it feel much colder than the temperature said. Folks were bundled up like it was a snowmobile race and while the crowd was much bigger than on Friday night, it still wasn't the packed house that I imagined it might be. Perhaps football played a part in that both nights. 

After a night off, the tech folks came back on Saturday with a fury as there were no less than ten disqualifications during the course of the evening, some that cost drivers from racing the mains. 

It did seem a shame that the premier class at this track all year didn't run their main event until about 1 am and in front of about fifty folks that were left, either because they were zealots or were perhaps frozen down in their seats! A modified schedule might have helped that situation. 

One suggestion might be to eliminate the second chances that drivers had on Saturday to qualify and just divide the remaining drivers up into B Features and qualify them out of those races, rather than having qualifying heats followed by another full round of qualifying. That would eliminate a number of races and cut down on the laps on the track. 

I didn't think it possible but I believe the surface actually wore out on Saturday from so many laps. After not touching it on Friday  night, there were several sessions of watering and scrapping the track to try and prevent it from rubbering up and going one lane but they were only partially successful in doing so as there were periods in certain races that it was clear that the groove was latching down and that might have played a part in some of the dominating races with less passing as I thought the prelims on Friday were excellent. 

Still, while some refining might be in order for next year, who can complain about the racing we saw with so many cars, events and entertainment, all during the last week of October?

It had to have been a grind for the track employees who put in some ungodly hours, racing until the wee hours and then being right back at it just a few hours later. Thanks to them as without their efforts, this program or any other for that matter would never be able to be run.